On Tuesday the 12th, two posts riddled with ‘Big Fat U*U’ in them. Nineteen, to be exact.

But, curiously, on Wednesday the 13th, three posts with no recurrence of that – but plenty of lashing out and vague attacks.

You would think that someone with a difference of opinion over how an organization is run would respond to the retirement of its chief administrator with an optimistic note on the possibility of positive change. No, Robin Edgar has to take more pot shots at Kay Montgomery.

And you would think that, if you talk repeatedly about ‘pedophiles and rapists’ in an organization, you would actually name some, as Robin Edgar had promised to do in his ‘New Year’s resolutions.’ Again, no such luck. Robin Edgar prefers instead to be provocative and sensationalistic – or, should we say, ‘deliberately rude and offensive’?

Robin Edgar keeps demanding that the UUA listen to him. Tell me, Mister Edgar, when you repeatedly describe them with terms like ‘douchebaggery,’ among other insults and perseverations, how do you expect them to take you seriously?

If this latest spate of manic attacks demonstrates anything, it is that Robin Edgar has no interest whatsoever in reconciliation or justice – only in lashing out and drawing attention to himself.

Once again, Robin Edgar publishes another post with another long, bombastic headline about how he’s been victimised by Unitarian Universalists, and his endless crusade against ‘U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy’ (read: not doing what he demands).

His latest post is yet another screed about ‘verbally abusive’ UU ministers. No specific examples mentioned, but then again, he’s gone on a tear about so many, we’re sure that even he is losing count.

At any rate, Mister Edgar had also sent a comment to this blog. Considering the content, and his penchant for accusing Unitarian Universalists of ‘hypocrisy’ … well, we shall let our readers decide where he stands:

Oh, nanny nanny boo boo. Having a bad day? Feeling a little insecure about yourself? Talk to your therapist. “RobinEdgarSucks.wordpress.com?” Are you in sixth grade? I just hope to God you’re not Big Fat U*U Ministry. I hope you be annoying you U*Us a lot in the new year. Seems like you U*Us could use it. – TEA

Don’t ever play cards with Robin Edgar. Because, if he plays the same way he responds to Unitarian Universalists, then he’s bound to rig the deck in his favour. Always.

If you’re a UU minister, and you post something on your blog which he does not like, then he attacks you. He’ll even file a ‘formal complaint of clergy misconduct’ (albeit to the wrong people) against you, and demand a response.

If he does not get a response to his misplaced ‘formal complaint’, then he will continually hound and harass the President of the UUA for one (even though the President’s office is not where such complaints are supposed to be delivered)

Well, let us say that you now remove the offending post, for whatever reason. Still not good enough. Now you are guilty of ‘memory-holing,’ because in Robin Edgar’s bizarre view of reality, you can never ever make amends for any mistake, and you must be forced to live with your mistakes forever and ever and ever.

It’s no surprise that Robin Edgar reads one UU minister’s blog entry, critical of some aspect of Unitarian Universalism, and makes it into a broad denunciation of anything and everything UUs believe and do. But this time his accusation is the greatest of all hypocrisies.

Yes, Robin Edgar has decreed that Unitarian Universalists are narcissists.

This from the man who, for some two decades, has lashed out at an increasing number of UU ministers and leaders and congregations, indeed the entire UU movement, because they will not do what he demands. Nothing else matters to Robin Edgar but what Robin Edgar wants. Fail to do so, and he sees it as justification to insult, belittle, attack and harass those whom he once idealized and now devalues.

Forget that Unitarian Universalists have done so much work for the benefit of others, simply because it is the right thing to do. Unitarians and Universalists worked for the abolition of slavery, equality for women, helping refugees from Nazi Germany, civil rights and racial equality, and now equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Not good enough for Robin Edgar, and not simply because Unitarian Universalists are no more perfect than anybody else. No, it’s not good enough for Robin Edgar because Robin Edgar does not like how some UUs treated him.

Nor does it matter how outrageous his own behaviour has been. If the Unitarian Church of Montreal will not authorise a second ‘Creation Day’ event, then he believes himself justified to throw a temper tantrum, accuse others in the church of intolerance, and demand that the minister meet him in his small apartment – and nowhere else – to ‘explain’ why total eclipses are such spiritual events.

It also does not matter that UUs have always been engaged in self-critical discussions about the evolution of our faith, and the needs of our members. Once again, another example of his egoistic black-and-white thinking – only those who kowtow to him are good and right, and anybody who dares to question or criticise him are bad and wrong.

For Robin Edgar to accuse anybody else of narcissism is a classic example of ‘the pot calling the kettle black.’ Of course, when somebody becomes as self-centred and self-absorbed as he is, it’s expected that he fails to see this. All we can hope is that UUs will remember all the good we have, and can continue, to do, and learn from that.

So once again he spirals into another blast of manic posts, lashing out at UUs refusing to indulge his immature need for absolute attention.

But here is the most pathetic – and hypocritical – part of this never-ending cycle in the life of Robin Edgar. While he decries UUs, especially UU ministers, of allegedly being insulting and rude to him, he goes out of his way to behave in even more rude and insulting behaviour, then acts as shocked as Claude Rains in ‘Casablanca’ that they would respond the way they do.

Yes, of course, he has repeatedly tried to distance himself from his actions, often by claiming that it’s not really him who is so obnoxious, but his supposed alter ego, ‘The Emerson Avenger’. Read this excerpt from a comment on his blog, dated Sunday, July 12th, 2009:

‘The Emerson Avenger is something of a “persona” aka an “act” and is often quite deliberately rude and “in your face” offensive’

The cycle continues. He doesn’t like what a Unitarian Universalist says, either about him or anything else. He considers it a deliberate insult to him, so he now considers himself justified in insulting, attacking and harassing the UU in question. When called on the carpet for his behaviour, he attempts to distance himself: ‘That wasn’t me, that was my persona!’ And the reason for this ‘act’? The big bad UU was mean to him, so that justifies his even worse behaviour. When the victim of his obsessive lashing out realizes that responding to his juvenile antics only leads to more of the same, and decides to break the cycle by both refusing to respond and denying him from hijacking thier Twitter account or blog, guess what? Robin Edgar decrees that this is another ‘reason’ for expressing his rage. How dare UUs ignore him!

Respond to him, and he lashes out. Ignore him, and he lashes out. You can’t win, break even, or even leave the game.

This is Robin Edgar’s ultimate hypocrisy. He demands that UUs be perfect, and when they are not, then he proclaims them evil, stupid, and every other insult he can throw at them – while he, conversely, is blameless and righteous in all things, and more importantly, deserving of attention if not outright adulation and submission to his will.

You can’t have it both ways, Mister Edgar. You can’t demand of others a standard which you yourself refuse to live by. And no matter how many times you try to rationalize your ‘deliberately rude and “in your face” offensive’ behaviour, there is simply no excuse for it. Even your pathetic attempts at distancing yourself from what you do is meaningless. After all, you created your so-called ‘Emerson Avenger persona’, and are thus ultimately responsible for everything you attribute to that ‘act’.

In Robin Edgar’s latest ‘Emerson Avenger’ blog post, he attempts to hijack Revered Fred Small’s words, all to justify himself. In his mind, since Small proclaimed, in the Universalist tradition, that God’s love is infinite and unbounded, that this somehow means that God approves of Mister Edgar’s outrageous statements and behaviour.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Mister Edgar, God loves you. Many Unitarian Universalists love you. We love you. But that doesn’t mean that you are immune from criticism, or that God or any of us are giving you carte blanche to exercise vengeance (however lame and misguided) on those you disagree with or don’t approve of. It certainly does not mean being thin-skinned and mean-spirited on your part.

As for your proclamation that our churches are ‘dead’, we just have to wonder, if that is the case, then why do you persist in beating a dead horse?

Mister Edgar, you just don’t get the message of Universalism. It is not simply that God’s love is infinite. It is that we, as God’s creation, should strive to act in love towards others – all of us, including you.

It means forgiveness, mercy, forbearance and honesty – qualities which we frankly find sorely lacking in your words and deeds.

It means moving on with your life, and doing something more constructive than repeating the same ‘peaceful public protest’ (read harassment) and sitting in a public library flaming UUs online in even the most irrelevant forums.

No, instead you pursue the practice of vengeance, even thinking up new reasons to lash out at Unitarian Universalists everywhere. Your path is not about love, but anger.

We do love you, Mister Edgar, as hard as it is for you to imagine. But do not love what you say or do. We wish you could do better, but your failure to see this only makes us pity you all the more.

Once again, Robin Edgar has nothing new to report or discuss. So once again, he rehashes the same old tired complaints and accusations. ‘I don’t like how these people treat me! Forget how I treat them – they should always be extra-super-nice to meeeee! And if they don’t, I’m gonna tell on them!!!’

Poor baby…

His latest rant is to single out three Unitarian Universalist churches for ‘inhuman’ treatment of others. Of course, he doesn’t specify what exactly these churches did; in the case of two of them, we have to wonder if he has even visisted them. (Not that we are encouraging him to do so, considering what a ‘visit’ from Robin Edgar usually means!) Let us take a closer look, shall we?

Unitarian Church of Montreal – The central target for Robin Edgar’s endless rage. Their crime? They would not kowtow to his increasing demands, and they refused to put up with his childish, outrageous behaviour. They were, in fact quite patient with him, having suspended his membership twice before finally terminating his association with the church. Not to mention enduring his endless picketing and lashing out.

First Parish in Norwell – The only reason we can think that this church is a target is that its minister, Reverend Victoria Weinstein, has been in Robin Edgar’s crosshairs for years now, searching for even the flimsiest excuse to lash out against her yet again. So why attack the congregation? Apparently, it’s based on a quote from Reverend Weinstein, supposedly describing some of her parishioners. Forget that it’s taken completely out of context. After all, the only ‘truth’ Robin Edgar is concerned about is his own narcissistic view that ‘U*Us are all bad bad bad because they won’t agree a hundred percent with me me me!‘

First Parish Church in Northborough – Now this is a strange one, indeed. Again, the only ‘inhuman’ activity related here are the crimes of Reverend Mack Mitchell, for which he is currently serving a prison sentence. But what of the church itself? Considering that his own parishioners turned him over to the authorities, isn’t that reason to commend them rather than condemn? Oh, not for Robin Edgar, who so loves the idea of guilt by association to ‘prove’ his tired old assertion that ‘U*Us are bad bad bad!‘

It is becoming clear that the only purpose for Robin Edgar’s antics is to make UUs look bad, all out of a disturbed ‘need’ for vindication and vengeance. As Dr. Phil McGraw would say, ‘How’s that workin’ for ya?’ Doesn’t seem to be. He’s gotten nowhere with persuading anybody in the UU movement to follow him, and his ideas for interfaith celebration have since petered out.

As we’ve pointed out before, doing the same thing over and over, with nothing to show for it, cannot be healthy. You need professional help, Mister Edgar – and we don’t mean a public relations firm. You need to see a qualified psychiatrist– not somebody with a degree who will go along with what you think you want. Please get the help you need, and get it now!

Seems that, whenever Robin Edgar runs out of ideas, he falls into the same tired old habits. He finds one Google hit, which fits his incredibly narrow, fixated view that ‘UUs are bad’ for whatever reason he can come up with, then whips it into yet another lengthy rant about how – you guessed it – UUs are bad.

This time, he takes a single post, tracks it to two posts where others complain of negative experiences attending UU churches, and offers it as ‘proof’ that Unitarian Universalists are ‘un-welcoming.’

And does he offer any solution to this problem? No, he doesn’t. Which does not surprise us in the least. It’s hard to get Robin Edgar to offer any practical solutions to any of the problems he complains about. Considering how often he distorts and exaggerates these problems, and in a few cases manufactures them, we don’t see how he could find any such solutions.

Let’s also take a good look at his ‘evidence.’ One of the posts which he copies and pastes is close to three years old; the other is six years old. For all he knows, the individual churches in question could have taken a good, hard look at themselves and made changes in how they greeted and interacted with newcomers. Considering how the UUA has been developing programs over the past few years to help congregations address just these issues, you would think that he would look at the whole timeline and see that UUs are working on solutions to the problem.

Nope. Robin Edgar needs a reason to complain, so why should he care about the facts? Why should he do anything more than repeat years-old criticism like it’s yesterday’s news? More important than that, why doesn’t he even bother with coming up with solutions of his own, instead of rehashing the same obsessive gripes?

At the very least, he could try starting his own independent spiritual community, open to all people, and ‘show ’em how its done,’ as they say. Since he is listed as a contact for the breakaway American Unitarian Conference, why doesn’t he try starting a fellowship under their auspices?

No, Robin Edgar?

Apparently not. He is too obsessed with accusing UUs of being ‘unwelcoming’ towards him that he is unable to be welcoming himself.

Not to mention the fact that the Unitarian Church of Montreal did welcome him as a member in 1993. By 1997, his behaviour and demands had gotten so out of hand that the church’s leadership felt they had to suspend that membership for six months. He responds with even more outrageous behaviour, both at church events and his picketing outside, not to mention his refusal to accept the written apology he demanded from Reverend Ray Drennan, that the UCM’s membership voted to expel him – after letting him give yet another lengthy, angry and almost incoherent defense of his actions (in which he actually compared the Board’s motion with the Spanish Inquisition, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and ‘ethnic cleansing’).

Robin Edgar was welcomed, and like an obnoxious party guest, he wore out his welcome. He was told to leave, and told why. But because he cannot accept that, and because the UUA will not punish the Montreal church as he sees fit, he now sees fit to punish all UUs for not conforming to his demands.

Well, Mister Edgar, if you want Unitarian Universalists to even consider your demands – whatever they may be – then we will repeat our condition for such: Go get professional help! At the very least, you can dispel all the statements you so hate concerning your mental health. At best, however, you could finally focus on the real problem here.

American Universalist P.T. Barnum is famous for saying ‘There’s a sucker born every minute.’ Robin Edgar has certainly has his share. He has often fooled others into buying into his endless complaints of ‘abuse’ by the Unitarian Church of Montreal and others.

Apparently, the MAJ did not do its homework. If they had, then they would have easily discovered that Robin Edgar’s ‘peaceful public protest’ is just a thin disguise for a campaign of vitriolic harassment. They would have also found that the minister against which he complaints yet again, Reverend Ray Drennan, had left the church many years ago.

Then again, it could be that the MAJ simply accepts any and all complaints of ‘police abuse’ at face value, without ever checking their credibility. Perhaps there is somebody in Montreal who can shed light on their history.

Even so, if the MAJ is indeed reliable, and they decide to look into the facts before following through with Robin Edgar’s ‘case’, we may find them moved to another list of individuals and groups – the ones who learned the hard way that this man is never satisfied with anything less than unquestioned support of everything he says and does, no matter how outlandish and inexcusable.

We can only wait and see how this plays out, as with the other melodramas created by this poor, disturbed man.

﻿Robin Edgar has hurled a variety of accusations and epithets at his numerous targets. His most recent, borrowed from another UU blogger, is passive-aggressive.

As usual, he makes no bones about diagnosing Unitarian Universalists he disapproves of, but easily launches into a tirade when anybody even dares to ask if he might have psychological problems. Not to mention the fallacious reasoning behind his use of the label.﻿﻿

Passive-aggressive people refuse to do what they are asked to do. UU leaders are refusing to do what Robin Edgar asks of them. Therefore, in Robin Edgar’s eyes, UU leaders are passive-agressive.

Setting aside the fact that there are other, perfectly legitimate reasons why different people refuse to do things, he’s missing the point that passive-aggressive individuals specifically resist authority. So Robin Edgar has it backwards … or is incredibly arrogant in assuming that he should have authority over Peter Morales, Gini Courtier, William Sinkford, John Buhrens and anybody else whom he accuses of ‘mistreating’ him.

Even more interesting is when we look at other specific symptoms of passive-aggressive personalities, and see how many actually match of the behaviour of Robin Edgar himself.

The passive-aggressive create chaotic situations, and make excuses for their behaviour. They constantly complain about being misunderstood and unappreciated, and exaggerate their sense of personal misfortune. They have few intimates, often pushing them away with continual anger and mistrust. Most important of all, the passive-aggressive always blame others, and never take responsibility for their own actions.

Still, just as UU leaders are not passive-aggressive because Robin Edgar projects one major trait on them, Robin Edgar is not necessarily passive-aggressive just because he seems to share some passive-aggressive traits. But his negativity, hostility, rage and narcissistic need for attention are definitely cause for concern. He is right when he says that others do not understand when he behaves the way he does … not only because of how counter-productive his behaviour is, but because he has utterly failed to learn how unproductive that behaviour is after so many, many years of repetitive lashing out.

Mister Edgar, whatever reasons you give for rationalizing your behaviour, it has not worked, and it will not work. You need to learn how to do things differently. You need to learn to let go of your rage, and to put yourself in the position of those many individuals whom you have been attacking and hurting over the years. But your recalcitrance has convinced us that you cannot learn this yourself. You need help. Please get that help, before it’s too late.